“… [Boyd] reflects on a life — a remarkable Horatio Alger-like rise from “stifling poverty” to a senior post among the newspaper’s “succession of greats,” ending with a swift fall — whose meaning eludes him. This book, published posthumously, is an attempt to come to terms with that life, and particularly with the role race [...]

“… could America’s greatest newspaper really be led by such vicious, untrustworthy people? That’s one of many questions one is left with upon reading Gerald Boyd’s angry yet thoughtful post-humous memoir detailing his rise through the hierarchy of The New York Times.

Times reporter Mia Navarro on “My Times in Black and White:” “It is highly personal, damning in its observations of some of his former colleagues and powerful in its insights into the perils of being successful and black.”

Gerald had been promoted to managing editor of the Times, the highest position an African American journalist had ever attained. But his career at the newspaper abruptly ended in 2003 when it was discovered that Jayson Blair, another African American, was a serial plagiarizer.

Gerald M. Boyd started his newspaper career at the bottom: as a copy boy at his hometown paper, the Post-Dispatch. But over 30 years, he rose to a job just one seat from the top, as managing editor of The New York Times.

Boyd died three years ago from cancer, but before his death, he had written two drafts of his book. Instead of letting them sit in a drawer, his wife, journalist Robin Stone, put the two together.

My Times in Black and White; Race and Power at the New York Times Gerald M. Boyd. Lawrence Hill, $26.95 (432p) ISBN 978-1-55652-952-8
Boyd’s appointment to the role of managing editor of the New York Times in 2001 made him the first African-American to hold one of the paper’s top two editing positions, and his leadership [...]